The wet weather in these parts led to an almost (but not quite) predictable cancellation of soccer games on the weekend that we were supposed to provide snacks. This means I ended up staring at a surplus of navel oranges and thinking, “What am I going to do with these?”
Marmalade presented itself as an option, except I’m still in Pi Day pie (a la) mode, so I don’t want to be distracted with canning. Then I thought, “I wonder whether a marmalade topping would work well on a tea-flavored cheesecake pie?”
Let’s find out, shall we?
Category Archives: Ask a ScienceBlogger
Pi Day pie #3: Schnockaschtettle.
In the ScienceBlogs Pi Day bake-off, it would seem that Pastry Chef Free-Ride has a posse.
Reader Jake emailed me to share a pie recipe for me to prepare with the sprogs. Writes Jake, “This is one member of the extended family of molasses crumb pies and a cousin to the Pennsylvania Dutch Shoo-fly Pie. This recipe comes from my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother, and when it comes out right (tends to vary a bit with relative humidity and barometric pressure) it is nowhere near as gooey or sickly sweet as most shoo-fly pies I’ve had. A cooled slice can be picked up with the fingers and eaten out of hand with no mess other than a crumb or two.”
As someone who spent half a dozen summers of my life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I’m happy to make the acquaintance of a less gooey, less sickly sweet pie from the shoo-fly lineage. As a bonus (yeah, I’m talking to you, jc), the recipe doesn’t call for any ingredient more exotic than molasses.
Here’s the recipe, with our commentary on the preparation:
Pi Day pie #2: ‘I want to taste springtime!’ violet custard pie.
We’re still a week away from Pi Day, but the break in the rain here has made me believe that spring may be on its way. What better way to celebrate spring (especially in the aftermath of a wintertime fruit pie) than a violet custard pie?
The violet custard is based on a recipe from The Savory Way by Deborah Madison.
The day before you’re going to bake the pie:
Go out to the garden and pick about 150 violets.
Avoid the ones with little bitty slugs on them.
Pi Day pie #1: End-of-winter fruit pie.
It’s not Pi Day yet, but there’s no reason to believe my first pie will be the one that hits the target. So, here’s my opener in anticipation of March 14th, a dried cherry/dried apricot/apple pie in a nut crust. I’m calling it an end-of-winter fruit pie because it’s made with what I have on hand as I wait for spring, summer, and fresh stone-fruits to arrive.
The recipe follows.
Ask a ScienceBlogger: is science fiction good for science?
Another “Ask a ScienceBlogger” question has been posed:
What do you see as science fiction’s role in promoting science, if any?
For an answer to the question as asked, what Isis said. Also, what Scicurious said about a bunch of related questions.
Myself, I think science fiction could do more than make non-scientists excited about science and the cool things science can (or might someday) do. I think science fiction has the potential to help us make better science.
Blogging and academic research.
As I emerge from my fever, I ponder the latest “Ask a ScienceBlogger” question:
There are many, many academic bloggers out there feverishly blogging about their areas of interest. Still, there are many, many more academics who don’t. So, why do you blog and how does blogging help with your research?
I started this blog as a way to remind my students (and myself) how my subject, the ethical conduct of science, is relevant to lots of things happening in the world right now. Some of those things involve scientists caught misbehaving, or scientific communities trying to figure out what sorts of behavior are productive or destructive. Some of the connections are less obvious, spilling over to issues around education, politics, or the marketplace.
Ask a ScienceBlogger, sort of: my life in half a dozen words.
Once again, Dave Ng at The World’s Fair issues a challenge:
If you had to write your memoirs in 6 words, what would they be?
Writing that memoir today, here are mine:
Chemist. Philosopher. Parent. Blogger.
Grown-up? Someday.
Six words fit very nicely in the comments field — what’s your life story?
What’s a disease?
“What is a disease?”
It would be nice to think that this is the kind of question where there are clear-cut, fact-based answers to be had. “Disease” is a term that seems to pick out a category of biological conditions, and biologists are pretty good with categorization.
Ethical considerations in the development of a male birth control pill.
“Why don’t they make a birth control pill for men?”
There are important considerations from medical ethics that might explain why a birth control pill for men has not happened yet.
Santa’s scientific credentials.
David Ng at The World’s Fair asks what kind of scientist Santa Claus might be. I’m not sure I have the answer to that, but I at least have a hunch about what kind of scientist might make the most headway studying Santa. (Of course, if Santa followed Socrates’ advice to “Know thyself,” that would be the kind of scientist Santa should be.)